For while I have always been pro-life, for a while I was kind of soft on the matter; weak might be a better way to put it. I was pro-life, but was willing to make any and all exceptions in regards to abortion. In essence, I was pro-life because someone told me to be so.

But then one day, in a seminary class, we watched a video detailing what happened in an abortion. We heard the accounts of 5 women who had had an abortion, who were lied to by the nurses and doctors, and who then endured what one can only hope were sloppy abortions, but were more likely standard operating procedure.

The sound of a vacuum still causes these women to jump in fear. The memories of seeing tiny body parts show up in their stool are horrifying. The fact that some could never again have children was devastating.

It was in watching this video in class, that I came to understand what happened in an abortion, and how evil it was, and how it needed to be stopped. From that point on I took more seriously the verses that emphasized the value God places on life, and I began to learn the science behind the development of a baby in the womb.

I share this account because at the recently concluded Rooks County Fair, I witnessed two instances where the reality of life from the time of conception was made real in the lives of real people while they visited the Natoma Lutherans For Life booth.

One was a small girl (probably 8 years old), who held one of the fetal models and was utterly impressed that she had once been that small, and not only that she had once been that small, but that all of the features she now had, and all of the things she took for granted (arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose, etc.) were present at such an early time.

The second was a young father (maybe 25 or so), who came by the booth with his young son (maybe 5) and showed him the fetal model as well. This time, it was actually the father who was so utterly amazed and taken aback, that the son he had seen grow up these past few years, was once so small and yet so completely present in his mother’s womb.

One of my favorite things to pass out to people at the fair, such as these two examples, is the small card that details the first 12 weeks after conception, and how each week something is happening: heart and lung formation, arms and legs growing, facial features, fingerprints, blood vessels, brain activity. By the end of 12 weeks, everything is present, it just gets bigger from there. By week 12, a child is 3 inches long and weighs 2 ounces, but looks just like any one of us walking around at larger proportions.

Many states today are pushing for legislation to ban abortions at earlier and earlier stages. I support this legislation, and hope that in my lifetime abortion will perhaps be banned entirely. But victories are not achieved in state legislatures or in court rooms, they are achieved at the county fair, and in Sunday School, and around the kitchen table, where the importance of life from conception to natural death is not just a bylaw on the books, but is a way of life.

Because while we make a great difference at the fair in the lives of the 2 I mentioned, and in the lives of countless others, the work does not stop when the booth is packed up and put back in storage; the work continues day in and day out, year round.

We are awaiting a new Bible study that focuses on life in the womb, and takes advantage of the new technology available; hopefully we will use it in January, if not sooner. The victory of life continues day by day, knowing that we have already won the full victory in Christ Jesus.